It is most common for present day homes to have at least one medicine cabinet in the bathroom or other area of the house for the storage of medicines or personal items. Medicine cabinets are usually mounted on vertical wall surfaces several feet above a sink or vanity. The typical medicine cabinet assembly includes a cabinet body having top, bottom, side and rear surfaces with an open front. The front opening of the cabinet is usually closed by a mirrored door mounted to the cabinet body about hinges, and the door is pivotally movable about these hinges to selectively open and close the front opening. A plurality of spaced horizontal storage shelves are also generally disposed within the cabinet body.
A typical medicine cabinet assembly of approximately 30".times.30".times.3" in size weighs approximately 60 pounds. When such a medicine cabinet is installed on a vertical wall surface, this considerable assembly weight creates difficulties for the installer who must support the assembly as it is being precisely positioned and mounted to a desired height and orientation. The difficulty of supporting the assembly is further increased when the assembly is being positioned above a sink or vanity which prevents the installer from positioning his body beneath the weight of the assembly.
Significantly, the majority of the assembly weight resides in the mirrored door or doors. In the typical 60 pound cabinet assembly described above, for example, the mirrored door would entail approximately 45 pounds of the total assembly weight. The remaining portions of the assembly, the shelves and the cabinet body, have a combined weight of only approximately 15 pounds. Hence, most of the installer's positioning and mounting difficulties are precipitated not by the weight of the cabinet body which must be secured to the wall surface, but by the weight of the doors which are hinged to the cabinet body. However, inasmuch as the closure members of prior art medicine cabinets have generally been either permanently hinged to the cabinet body or relatively difficult to disassemble, installers of these assemblies have, as a practical matter, been relegated to supporting the entire assembly weight during installation.
The considerable weight of the medicine cabinet assembly also compounds the difficulties in leveling a cabinet on a vertical wall. Most modern cabinet assemblies are installed by inserting mounting screws into the vertical wall through apertures in the rear surface of the cabinet body. In order to accommodate such installation, prior art cabinet bodies have included apertures in the four corners of the rear surface. The cabinet is first lifted into its desired position. Once leveled, the position of the four apertures are marked on the wall through the rear of the cabinet body. The cabinet assembly is then returned to the floor and screws are started into the marked locations on the wall. As noted above, the cabinet assembly is frequently installed above a sink or vanity which prevents the installer from positioning his body beneath the supported cabinet assembly. This makes installation of the assembly more difficult. Also, the open door(s) of the assembly inevitably swing about their hinges as the assembly is moved to further complicate installation. The method of installing cabinet assemblies of the prior art is so cumbersome, in fact, that two or more people are usually required.